Fistful of beans 12/29/2010

The most pressing strategic learning need facing business today is managing knowledge needed by front-line performers. There is a prevailing belief that management knows best and front-line employees just need to be told what to do and when to do it. However, in most situations, front-line employees are in the best position to diagnose their own knowledge needs.

A strong CFO is a strong business partner. What does it take to be a true partner setting company strategy alongside a CEO?

“You become relevant when you have intellectual curiosity and a capacity to understand the needs of your colleagues and businesses, and the courage to then have a point of view. This is not about being the bad cop, it’s about having the willingness to engage in a healthy debate over a strategic direction, to listen to others’ views, and then to help effect compromises to move the strategy forward”, as one COO/CFO says.

The impact of influence. Though defining influence, from Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People to Malcom Gladwell’s Tipping Point, begins to cause confusion, social media is thriving. These people have strong followings of committed, passionate, and trusting audiences. What are these influencers doing, how are they doing it, and how are they making a good career or business model doing it?

Doctors, data, and electronic records: used in malpractice cases? Inadvertent data loss? Poor tracking of changes to the records? Data-entry errors? Privacy breaches? Standards to turn white lab coats into straitjackets? Or is it a change management issue? A look at the companies and people behind the long and winding road to bring technology to health care.

From a pure economics perspective a ‘low-ball’ offer may be a result of supply and demand, but as anyone not involved in rational actors knows, human capital is not a commodity. The risk: low trust, low engagement, and a job turnover for the first chance they get.